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"It feels different this time..." - The new Doctor Who Thread

Lux

Very strong episode but not without it's flaws.
The wild thing is the animation that takes place in the real world looks really impressive but when we look inside Ring-A-Ding's cartoon, very little is done with it (I'm willing to forgive this with the Doctor's cartoon because it is imitating the Hanna Barbera style that was infamous for cheapness). The Doctor playing with the reality of film doesn't actually make a lot of sense but much of it looks good and is well filmed to play with the illusion so I'm pretty forgiving of it (especially since Doctor Who is an famously talky sci-fi show that tries to dress up a lot of characters standing around explaining things to solve problem so it's nice of them to try to do what they can to embrace the meta of the episode). The meeting the Doctor Who fans is cheesy but not nearly as cringey as it could have been and it ends sweetly (though I didn't need them to survive. I feel like that was put in because perhaps Davies was worried it might come across too mean-spirited to the fans, though I don't think so).

What does work is that finale. Oh, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for the Doctor to use regeneration powers to heal minor wounds but there's precedent (really, though, I never liked it. It gives him a "superpower" and I like the Doctor to be physically vulnerable who survives by wits and wisdom). And while I think there are things to pick apart, it is visually epic in ways I want the show to be but isn't always. It ends the villain on a note that's surprisingly beautiful for the cartoon bug man. Like, that MAKES the episode for me and shores up all it's flaws. I also think that Davies, weirdly, is at his strongest when he takes a break from the big sci-fi stuff for character stuff, like him connecting with a woman mourning her missing child.

My one concern is that since last season it felt like it was building a metafictional mystery but that nickel feels both fully spent and that they are already looking to spend it again, seeding #RIPDOCTORWHO and the line about a limited run. Yes, it could be continuing the meta within the episode itself but we have Flood, who is already a fourth wall breaker and it makes me think they are going back to it when it feels sort of done already. Like there are a hundred ways to approach a meta episode (see also Love and Monsters... or don't) but two in one season might be a bit of an ask, assuming that's what we are ramping up for. I mean, any meta in the finale could also be a smaller part of whatever, I assume. the Gods are up to, but it might be hard to land this one, or at least have the same impact when you've already had the Doctor come out of the screen and greet his fans.
 
They actually got me to enjoy one of those "the characters find out they're television characters" episodes that usually annoy the ever living heck out of me. The whole time I was enjoying the fans being made fun of by the Doctor and Belinda (their favorite episode being Blink is hilarious lmao), I wanted them to just ask the Doctor to go back to the 1960s and save the missing episodes. I'm a turbo nerd!

Anyway. The animation of Lux was incredible - I thought at some point it would look cheap but it never did. I don't really understand how Lux works, really - I guess he traps people on film for... reasons? But he was fun to watch, and at least Alan Cumming got to be in a full on good episode of Doctor Who (I enjoyed The Witchfinders, one of the better episodes of the Chibnall era mainly because he didn't write it, but this is better).

The racism showing up the few times it did hit pretty hard, though. The scene where the cop and the mom interrogating the Doctor and Belinda in the theater was faked by Lux, but just like in Rosa (the other quite good Chibnall episode imo), pre-Civil Rights era US cops are fucking terrifying in a way the show doesn't always get to show (and it's not like they're less terrifying now, either. They're just different. Imagine in 2025 anyone saying to a US cop "Don't you dare point a gun at me," especially a person of color. They'd be murdered immediately).

So far, this is a really good season. I really hope they keep making more Doctor Who, goddammit.
 
Kazin said:
The animation of Lux was incredible
Click to expand...
Agreed. I think that's why I was surprised that the cartoon within the show was surprisingly uneventful. Like, more things tend to happen even in a lesser cartoon of the era (that's that well animated, there were some really cheap ones in the theatre in that era, especially the then-cheapened Fleisher cartoons) It's a very small complaint, especially considering how technically accomplished this episode was for a series that is famous for it's charmingly flimsy effects.
 
Frontier In Space

"Allow me to congratulate you, sir. You have the most totally closed mind that I've ever encountered."

The Doctor and Jo land on a cargo ship in the 26th Century. They find themselves caught between a cold war of two empires of space; Earth and the Draconians. The Doctor and Jo are blamed for a raid by the Ogrons, the alien warriors previously working under the Daleks, after a strange device alters the perception of people to see their worst enemies. The Doctor tries to explain to both sides by both sides are convinced that they are spies for the other side. The Doctor realizes that people don't know the Ogrons are attacking because the device is making them see Earth or Draconians soldiers, depending on their alignment. The Doctor is arrested and sent to a penal colony but taken by the Master in his new guise as an Earth official. It turns out he wants to turn the two empires against each other to his own ends. The Doctor escapes and manages to get two of Earth's warmongering war leaders to listen to him, and lead an expedition to the Ogrons homeworld. There, the Doctor faces off against the Master who reveals a terrible surprise; he is working for the Daleks, who want both sides wiped out. The Doctor manages to defeat the Ogrons and the Master but finds himself forced to flee with Jo, trying to contact with the Time Lords for help.

Frontier in Space... might be the most generic story of this era. Yes, more generic than the UNIT stories because those definitely put it in a specific place. Even the title doesn't say much. Yes, there's a frontier because of the war borders but space being referred to as a frontier has been used so often, it really doesn't conjure the idea of a battleground so much as.... a place to go. It's also a story with a lot of repetition; the Doctor and Jo getting caught and someone from one of the two empires pointing fingers, escaping and getting caught. It's tiring.

And if you have a tiring Doctor Who plot, the best chance you have at improving it is The Master. This is Roger Delgado's last performance as the character before his tragic death but it's a good one. Not good enough to save the serial but it goes a LOOONG way to helping. His reveal seems sort of anticlimactic but the nonsense, around it both feels like filler and yet is also the STRONGEST stuff in the serial by a good margin. A little game of cat and mouse, the interplay between Pertwee and Delgado. It's pretty good stuff, certainly compared to the rest.

Eventually we get to the big reveal of the true baddies and it's disappointing. Partially because it feels like an empty reveal this late in the game. But as the story was winding down, it was clearly setting up the next story and I was more forgiving of that turn... but it makes the rest of the arc much less so. It feels like it was just biding time for this one. Everything else about the message and the characters feel trite and unearned. I never feel the sense of tension, the feeling of the impossible task of forcing others to unlearn hate and fear. And this is clearly a cold war story and yet while I imagine tension felt awful at the time in the real world, this just feels like a tale that has nothing to say and what it does is said without passion.

Best cliffhanger; by process of elimination, the last episode.

Next Time:

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Obligatory "I'm reading your posts and enjoying them, @Johnny Unusual." Nothing to add. Generic Third Doctor story #3153256236. Roger Delgado deserved a better sendoff, as you say.
 
A few days late, but I enjoyed Lux a lot. Once again I appreciate RTD trying something different with the show, and if Series 15 turns out to be as odd and experimental as 14 was, I'll be well pleased.

Alan Cumming turns in a great performance as Lux/Mr. Ring-a-Ding, and the old-timey animation was very well done, though I thought they could have done a little more with the Doctor and Belinda being trapped on film. The scene with the Doctor Who fans could have turned out super cringey, but it was actually quite sweet and didn't wear out its welcome. Loved their unanimous insistence that Blink is the best episode, hahaha.

The climax did two things I'm not usually a huge fan of -- the Doctor using "regeneration energy" for something other than changing actors, and the tired old "oh you want power? here's TOO MUCH power!" trope -- but executed them in ways that actually worked for me. As Johnny notes above I don't want the Doctor casting healing spells, but the idea that an entity made of light would be interested in regeneration ("the light that builds a body") is just too perfect to pass up. Similarly, that the God of Light would be undone by simple sunlight is perplexing, but Lux's dreamy astonishment as his consciousness expands to fill the entire universe was an unusual and kind of beautiful take on one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Overall the Pantheon are making for varied and interesting villains, and I'm keen to see more of them; I just hope my boy Fenric gets a shout-out at some point. I suppose we'll find out Mrs. Flood's deal at the end of the season (and I suspect she's part of the Pantheon as well), but I don't know if I need her winking at the camera in every single episode.

There have been a lot of rumors swirling about DW being canceled or going on hiatus after this season, the evidence for which seems plausible as apparently Gatwa has a long theater commitment when you'd think he'd be busy filming Series 16. If they turn out to be true I won't be heartbroken -- I don't think you can ever truly kill off Doctor Who, it always regenerates and comes back eventually -- but I will be disappointed to see it cut short in the middle of a period of such fertile creativity. I genuinely have no idea what to expect each week and I'm loving that. Keep surprising me, RTD.
 
I was googling around about The Pantheon of Discord and apparently the Mara has been referenced a few times, and that's who I want to see, especially given we've got another reluctant companion like Tegan this year...

What's weird about the Doctor casting a "healing spell" is that, here in Lux, he again mentions bi-generation, as though that is distinct and gives him separate powers from ones he'd had before... Or other Time Lords, like River Song, who healed the 11th Doctor with her then-recent regeneration energy in Let's Kill Hitler. This could mean that perhaps River Song also bi-generated... and would be a decent-ish explanation for Mrs. Flood. I don't know how that'd square with the episode Let's Kill Hitler as broadcast, but you know, could be fun!
 
Other based-on-little theory (a little more out there) for the season, after remembering Kronos from The Time Monster

The Pantheon actually wants the Doctor to be the God of Time, which he does not want (maybe Kronos died or abandoned their post or something). So to cajole the Doctor into it, they also offer it to the Master (who seems due to return), because they know the Doctor won't just let the Master have that plum and let him endanger the universe.
 
I've been informed that today marks the 50th anniversary of William Hartnell's passing. He may have been a difficult and complicated person in real life, but I think most of those who dismiss the First Doctor as being one of the worst or least interesting incarnations probably haven't actually watched much of him, and would be surprised to find how many little moments and acting choices of his would fit perfectly into modern interpretations of the Doctor. I adore the varied and experimental nature of his era, where the show was still finding its footing and hadn't necessarily settled into a clear formula yet, and I wish they'd bring back the "pure historical" type of story, even if just once a season.

It's a cliché to say "we wouldn't be here if not for Hartnell," but it's true. I think it's very telling that neither Richard Hurndall nor David Bradley were able to turn in a performance that perfectly mimicked him -- there's some unique magic there that can't quite be replicated. Thanks for everything, Bill.
 
Aw, geez. Yeah, the First Doctor era is fantastic, if uneven. Here's hoping they find more of it so we can see more of Hartnell's performance.
 
Also his affectation that each button and switch on the console had a specific purpose, made the TARDIS all the more real.
 
The Well

The show is on a streak. Big Jojo's Bizarre Adventure energy with this one (granted with less of a sense of fun but just as much horror). Specifically this Jojo story. This one was good at hiding it's reveal and connection to lore. Mostly I liked that aspect because it didn't get too deep into the weeds (that said, it's weird to hint it's the same monster when the M.O. is different. Just have Midnight be a planet of unknowable horrors.

I like that Midnight is a planet where the Doctor basically loses (or loses-ish). It's a planet where his goodness and other qualities aren't enough (they actually served him better here than in Midnight where they were straight up weaponized against him and the act of communicating and trying to reach out is a trap) and someone else is willing to die for the greater good. I like that the two Midnight stories go darker than the show usually does. I think while it looks better than Midnight, it's not quite as good but in it's own right it is very strong. Monsters with "rules" are making a comeback, like A Quiet Place and that movie about Monsters that like to be really low (or really high). I like rules too because it gives the writers a toy to play with and the audience gets to think "OK, what would I do with these limitations?" I think the ruleset here is mostly quite strong and almost wish we had more time with other variations but still, really fun, spooky episode[/SPOILER]

OK, new baseless theory; Flood is the Master. It wasn't clear before if Flood was friend or foe and it still isn't (the Master is evil but will work with the Doctor, in antagonistic way, if the threat is big enough.) Though he was in no way prompting the necessity of the Master's return for this story, Davies did plant the seeds for her return and connected her to the Pantheon. The fact that she wants to grab one of the Doctor items seems... I won't say it's something a God wouldn't do (the Gods are definitely sneaky when they don't have their power yet or are restrained) but it also feels like a story where the Master is after a MacGuffin, which in this case the Doctor holds. The Master now has insight into the meta narrative, giving her a big advantage to either plot to kill the Gods out of fear or revenge or to, as the Master is want to do, to simply try to take that power for herself. After all, since the Pertwee days, the Master has aspired to nothing less than the dominance of "all matter" (I could also see the Master just deciding to destroy the universe, because she seems like a "the chase was better than actually getting what I want" kind of character)

Very silly but also really likely theory: I'm sure everyone's already guessed this but Belinda is a (or the? It's not clear) Harbinger, The silly part is the only part in her name that doesn't have one of those letters is G so there's going to be a big reveal with the letter G. And this is the kind of thing that Davies isn't the best at so... it's gonna be silly.

Edit: I ended up doing inline spoilers within inline spoilers. I didn't know Talking Time could do that! Neat
 
I was thoroughly entertained, but the rules of this monster were not clear to me. If you go behind the person who is "possessed," you get murdered. Yet at the end, the person who took over possession turned her back on everyone and ran, and everyone behind her was fine. The ending suggests the character reporting to Mrs. Flood at the end is currently "possessed," so maybe that's why? Does that mean no one has been behind her since they left the planet?

They played Britney Spears' "Toxic" again at the beginning of this - evoking The End of the World. Why? This time it wasn't diegetic - it just played as the Doctor and Belinda changed clothes and ran out the TARDIS doors. It's a very specific reference, though, to me - it was a "traditional ballad" in The End of the World, which played as a tribute to Earth as it was destroyed by the sun. Here, the people hadn't heard of the human race or planet Earth. Seems very deliberate to me.

But yeah. Enjoying this season a lot. So far it's stronger than Gatwa's first.
 
Kazin said:
They played Britney Spears' "Toxic" again at the beginning of this - evoking The End of the World. Why? This time it wasn't diegetic - it just played as the Doctor and Belinda changed clothes and ran out the TARDIS doors. It's a very specific reference, though, to me - it was a "traditional ballad" in The End of the World, which played as a tribute to Earth as it was destroyed by the sun. Here, the people hadn't heard of the human race or planet Earth. Seems very deliberate to me.
Click to expand...
Notably it was also the exact same costume-change framing from the last episode. My guess this is going to happen a few more times and it will be played with visually in the finale in a meta way, since the season seems to be about that. I wonder if beyond the obvious meta there will be more low key callbacks to the Davies run on the series.
 
After I'd had my lunch, I sat down with a can of Coke to watch today's episode.

50 minutes later I had not even opened my drink.

I have read no spoilers for this season, so I had no idea what was coming. Midnight is one of my very favorite episodes of Doctor Who, and one of the few that I consider to be absolutely flawless, like a diamond. A sequel to that story needed to tread very, very carefully, and while I don't think The Well quite lives up to its legendary predecessor (what could?), it still managed to produce an extremely riveting hour of television.

Midnight had a lot to say about the dark side of human nature, and what fear does to us. The Well has considerably less to offer on that front, and largely concerns itself with the monster and how it operates. That said, the tension is at maximum for nearly the entire hour, and this is one case where I think that's actually helped by Murray Gold's score, effectively eerie and foreboding here rather than bombastic. The first time Belinda "sees" the creature behind Aliss and we get that sudden scare chord I nearly jumped out of my seat, and I don't startle easily. Aliss is extremely sympathetic, even when you're not sure yet what's going on and can't be certain that she's entirely innocent.

The revelation that we were back on planet Midnight was an effective scare, though it also pulled me out of the story just a bit, as my thoughts shifted from being 100% focused on what would happen next, to "you'd better not fuck this up, Russell." But I'm pleased that at the end of all this we still know almost nothing about the entity, other than that it is clever, sadistic, and wants to escape the planet. (I'm sure fans who love to miss the point will carefully screencap every single frame of the few vague glimpses we get of it to squint at and share around on reddit.)

I agree with Kazin, though, that as much time as the episode spends on the entity's (new) rules, they start to get a little shaky at the end. Why does almost killing Belinda cause it to jump hosts, especially when they explain that that's exactly what they're going to do beforehand? Wasn't it listening? And why does Shaya turning her back on everyone have no consequences? (Maybe that sequence would have worked better if Shaya just suddenly shot Belinda without warning, and then backed out of the room while everyone else is focused on trying to resuscitate her. The Doctor could then realize what she'd done and what she's planning to do, and give chase.) Also, when Cassio is inadvertently getting his squadmates killed, having everyone get thrown twenty feet across the room one after the other gets a bit visually silly. Maybe have a few who just suddenly drop after having their necks snapped. Yeah yeah, Monday morning quarterbacking.

I thought for sure the setup of the airlock's maximum occupancy of 6 (and its readout of same) would be used for a twist later, like "...but there are only five of us here! Why does it say six? ...oh no" but that didn't come to pass. It's fine.

Ncuti Gatwa Tears Report: ✅
I think he's on a perfect streak so far this season.

Is it weird that we've had back-to-back seasons where the arc concerns a mysterious old woman who appears in every episode? It is, isn't it? After Susan Triad ended in kind of a messy misfire, I'm not confident that the Mrs. Flood story is going anywhere satisfying, but I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

As far as I'm concerned this season is only getting better and better as it goes. Let's keep it up!
 
Spoilers for The Well (seriously, go watch the episode itself before even looking at this YT video):


It's very interesting that this didn't begin as a sequel to Midnight, and sort of arrived there after another story wasn't cohering. More than anything, this story seemed like it was building up to an Impossible Planet/Satan Pit sequel, and it sort of is, in a way? Whatever the monster here is, it was able to get off the planet, unlike the demon from that story. I've seen suggestions that the monster here could also be the monster from Listen, as well, which only makes sense to me in that it is sort of visible for a few frames but blurry and indistinct. I guess there's also that scene where everybody turns their back on it. But no, different entity.

An interesting theory going around the Eruditorum Press Discord is that there are two entities on Midnight - whatever the one was that ripped the front half of the bus off, and the one that possessed Mrs. Sylvestri, and that here, only the first entity is present (that we know of, anyway). That this isn't a sequel to Midnight, it's a sequel to that one specific scene in Midnight where one of the drivers sees something out the window... Which, honestly, fits. Perhaps the drivers turned their backs on the entity when we're watching the passengers, which is when the bus got ripped apart? Dunno where that entity went afterwards, though. I must admit I quite like this theory, as it makes both Midnight and The Well both make a bit more sense to me.

Another interesting thought someone had over there was that for an entity that cannot stand it's own reflection, living on a planet that at one time was made up entirely of sparkly, reflective diamonds must have been difficult...
 
I enjoyed The Well, but so far Lux is still my favorite out of this season.

I would probably need to re-watch Midnight, because I clearly don't quite remember it. It's been ages since I last saw Tennant's seasons.

Anyway, at this point it is obvious Mrs. Flood is either a Pantheon or The Master. I'm honestly hoping for the former, just for the cohesion with the rest of Gatwa's episodes, but I wouldn't be too mad if it just turned out to be The Master behind everything if it's fun.
 
Planet of the Daleks

"So be careful how you tell that story, will you? Don't glamourise it. Don't make war sound like an exciting and thrilling game."

Following the Doctor's nearly deadly encounter with the Master, he and Jo rush to stop the Dalek invasion of the galaxy. They wind up on the planet Spiridon, a planet of deadly flora and fauna where the native people are all invisible. The Doctor and Jo meet the Thal, the other natives of Skaro aside from the Daleks, who are on a deadly mission. The Doctor learns the planet is now home to the Daleks, who are trying to study the Spiridons to become invisible themselves. The problem becomes worse when it turns out the Daleks on the planet aren't a small science team as initially reported by an incredibly large invasion force.

However, while escaping the Daleks, the Doctor learns that the army is in suspended animation. The Doctor also learns that there is a massive ice volcano, with cold being a huge weakness to the Daleks. Together, the Doctor, Jo, the Thal and a Spiridon named Wester, infiltrate the Dalek base and use bombs to create a crack in the walls of their base and unleash molten ice on the Daleks. The plan succeeds, though some are lost in the war including Wester. The Thal return home and Jo asks the Doctor to do the same for her.

Planet of the Daleks is one of those episodes that fits in a bit of a weird space. I feel like mostly it is propulsive, though while the last act goes for tension is bumbles and feels false, it works as a nice, straightforward adventure tale. But as a Doctor Who story, it kind of lacks the intelligence and empathy I think makes the show a hallmark. Terry Nation is a writer who both gets the Daleks but have both written some of the best and worst Dalek stories. I think he works best when he can make a Dalek story tie into the Nazi metaphor but as a variation on the "small band takes out Nazi base"-type stories, it is really lacking.

In many ways, this is closer to Doctor Who as a Flash Gordon - adventure first with a sci-fi coating. And in that realm, it works. They throw a lot of ideas out there; invisible enemies, deadly plants, weird ice volcanos. It's pretty fun for the first couple episodes and the middle part mostly works as adventure. But 4 is better than 6 for a episode count and while it doesn't get boring, it does feel like it's done all it can by 4. To be fair, it could be that outside of the Master, the last serial was so dull starting off with weird aliens and stuff was the perfect palette cleanser. But this one also kind of annoyed me. Wester is not really used enough, the Spiridons mostly disappear from the story and don't tie in well to the finale. The molten ice... it sounds like a weird fun idea but there's no consistency to it (no pun intended). The Doctor straight up puts his hand in and decides ÿeah, this is cold enough to kill the Daleks".

It's a story that throws a lot of stuff in there but it never pans out cleverly. Shouldn't the Spiridons be moved to rise up? Wouldn't a great fate for the Daleks to be eaten up by the planet they are exploiting. Or having their invisibility turned on themselves somehow (a rescue crew can't find them or they unwittingly murder each other) And the Doctor has a great speech about war but it never feels like it ties into the story, The Thal weren't glory hounds and the idea that the doctor wants to make sure the story doesn't glorify the horrors of war when this was a basic-ass war adventure tale. It's kinda fun but also dumb. And when I say dumb, specifically, it did not think hard enough about itself. It feels either like a first draft or the final draft of a story that went through so many revisions, it lost track of what it is.

Best cliffhanger:
A guy getting beaten up by the Grimaces.

Next time:

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Terry Nation barely understands his own creation. He only wrote four good stories with them, and you've seen three of them already (all during the First Doctor era). I'm sure you know, and have perhaps already seen, the final good Dalek script he writes, most likely with a lot of help from an uncredited Robert Holmes. Hint: it is definitely not his next story.

Planet of the Daleks is, like so much of the Pertwee era, fine.
 
That's being ...generous, to Planet of the Daleks. But then I don't have as much patience for Pertwee's padded episodes as I might.
 
Yeah... lol. I think part of my generosity towards it is I'm comparing it to Death to the Daleks, which is among the worst scripts and productions in the show's history (sorry Nick Briggs, who loves it). I wonder what Johnny will make of the Parquet Floor of Doom?
 
I found Lucky Day a pretty unpleasant watch. Half of it is watching Ruby Sunday getting gaslit by a creep, and the other half is an obvious Alex Jones-style misinfo disseminater trying to "expose" UNIT for... what, exactly? I mean people are aware aliens exist, but because of this guy and his podcast, they've begun believing all that stuff they saw - and presumably the people who died - were faked? Now that I'm typing it out... Yeah, I guess that's what they're going for. Doctor Who episodes with crisis actors. I don't mind the message behind it - a surprise, coming out of a Pete McTighe episode - but this is not one I think I'll be coming back to very often.
 
Yeah, this one didn't wow me either. It was just fine.

I'm a big fan of UNIT and its whole cast of characters, so for me the highlight was getting to see Kate Stewart get really fired up. Love the picture of the Brigadier on her desk. It was nice to see Shirley again (and was she wearing the Tenth Doctor's brown pinstripe jacket, or do I just miss Osgood and her cosplaying?)

Ultimately I'm not sure what Conrad actually even believes. He tells the Doctor to "get off my world," so he... DOES believe he's an actual alien, and that the TARDIS is a spaceship? I thought it was all just special effects. (Speaking of, he did a pretty good job making convincing costumes of a creature he only ever got a glimpse of.)

While it's interesting to see a companion's life following the end of her travels with the Doctor, these are such short seasons that I can't help but be a little annoyed that we lost an episode's worth of time with Belinda, who I think is much more interesting than Ruby. I'm not following any leaks so I can't say this with any authority, but with all the rumors swirling about the show's impending cancelation or hiatus I get the feeling that Varada Sethu isn't going to stick around beyond The Reality War.
 
I also wish we'd have gotten another episode with Belinda. I don't mind Ruby Sunday - I still adore 73 Yards, for example - but this didn't do a whole lot for me.

I suppose it's a reminder of some of these characters for The War Between the Land and the Sea? Maybe?
 
Lucky Day was a bit of a mixed bag. Pretty on-the-nose but I frankly understand not going for subtly when reality is so cartoonish. It does tie into the main theme of the season it seems, which is stories (in this case, puerile lies purely for the sake of power and attention to create one's own narrative that they are the hero). The Doctor's speech was also good (not, like, the best, but good) but tacked on and maybe wasn't needed outside of just giving us a point of view on the issue of the disinformation age and hope about the people who profit that they will be forgotten. I feel like the idea that UNIT's own grandstanding would help fight disinformation in a world where people double, triple and quadruple down when faced with evidence and being so far removed from the reality of the live stream it would be easy to just say "fake").

Frankly, I also didn't need the promise that Conrad would come back, thank you. It does feed into my theory that the finale is about the Doctor threatened with being replaced by the manosphere version of the Doctor. Anyway, feel very confident with the theory that Flood is definitely The Master like, 90% certain. Also, the preview for the next episode looks like it's another meta episode if I'm right that the big spider monster is the African trickster figure Anansi .
 
Not my favorite episode this season, but I enjoyed it. Definitely feel bad for Belinda, though. If she's going to only have this one season then it's a bummer that she pretty much missed out on an entire episode.

Felt a bit too close to home, for obvious reasons. Though I rather liked the Doctor's speech at the end, maybe it was tacked on but it was at least a little bit gratifying to hear what we all feel regarding the current disinfo age put into words.
 
SpoonyBard said:
Felt a bit too close to home, for obvious reasons. Though I rather liked the Doctor's speech at the end, maybe it was tacked on but it was at least a little bit gratifying to hear what we all feel regarding the current disinfo age put into words.
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Yeah, I totally agree. It's well-written. I think that moment after also does a better job of saying this dude is going to keep lying to everyone, including himself, until it "becomes true", despite how contradictory it is. And that's dark and sad but it works for me better than the "oh, everyone is just fine with UNIT now" dialogue. I think it would have been a good tool to say that "from here, UNIT has an uphill battle" and they could have ignored that (time passes, things change) or used it down the line.

Not really a spoiler accept it deals with an element of the episode.
I will say, this version of UNIT is a bit more what I would like to see. I'm genuinely surprised UNIT never got it's own series. (Torchwood did and that was, like, UNIT lite). I'd like to see a UNIT show that gets to be a bit darker, not in the Star Trek's Section 31 way (ugh) but rather "what is it like to live through constant near-apocalypses" that would feel more like Nigel Keale or Sapphire and Steel stories where maybe things don't go as well as they would for the Doctor and the best they can do is kicking a can down the road.
 
I kind of liked the Doctor's speech at the end - it reminded me what I've heard people say about Rush Limbaugh after he died - that no one talks about him anymore, because all he did was spread hate and poison. None of his contributions to humanity have lasted even a scant few years after his death, besides of course his inspiration to other assholes. Which fits with what the Doctor said at the end - that people like Conrad will be forgotten and left behind.
 
I forgot McTighe is all over the writing of that show. Yeah, this was clearly the prequel to that spinoff... Not a good sign for me, at least.
 
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